Subsidy for sustainable donor organs and DNA computing

Both researchers have the ERC grant receive to be able to further develop their promising research projects. For example, it has become increasingly apparent in recent years that DNA can also form the basis for a new species computer. On paper, DNA has an enormous memory capacity and you can do parallel calculations with extreme speed.

However, a DNA computer is slightly different from the well-known desktop PC or laptop. In fact, a DNA computer is a collection of DNA molecules floating in the blood that make ‘a calculation’ by interacting and reacting with each other or with other molecules, such as antibodies and proteins.

DNA computer for disease control

A DNA computer can eventually be used to make diagnoses, to combat diseases or to continuously monitor blood values ​​and automatically adjust medication accordingly. “The first publications on DNA computing date back to the 1990s, but now we are at a breaking point that things are really starting to take off,” says biomedical engineer Tom de Greef.

De Greef named his project after his first computer, AMIGA. With the project he despises to be able to make an important contribution to the development of a DNA computer. For the first time, he will bring together existing separate elements in one system that can receive, process and store molecular signals on a hard disk of DNA.

“We package the molecular components in a kind of capsule and by connecting them all kinds of processes go faster and there is less signal loss,” says de Greef. He hopes this approach will lead to further scaling up of the technology so that hundreds of different signals can be processed simultaneously.

Donor organs ‘freeze’ for longer

Professor Ilja Voets uses the ERC subsidy to develop new materials, inspired by so-called anti-freeze proteins. These proteins keep the blood of animals, such as arctic fish and snow fleas, from freezing in the cold environment in which they live. They prevent the formation and further growth of ice crystals, allowing the blood to keep flowing and allowing the animals to survive in these arctic environments.

Voets wants to use these proteins to preserve donor organs for longer by means of ‘cryopreservation’. “A donor heart, for example, can only survive outside the body for four hours, which is in most cases too short to successfully transplant. My ultimate goal is that we can keep a heart at a very low temperature for much longer, without damaging the tissue, ”Voets said. She also sees opportunities for the application of ‘cryopreservation’ in regenerative medicine.

In recent years, Voets has studied the anti-freeze proteins in detail. With the ERC grant she now wants to take the first step towards the development of synthetic materials inspired by the proteins. With so-called polyamides, composed of amino acids, Voets hopes to mimic the most beneficial properties of anti-freeze proteins that enable tissue preservation. These include, for example, how the materials suppress explosive ice growth and promote blunt ice crystals that do not pierce the cells.

ERC grant

The European Research Council (ERC) promotes the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and supporting frontier research in all areas. ERC grants enable the brightest minds in Europe to identify new opportunities in every field of research and stimulate new and unpredictable scientific and technological discoveries.

The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to excellent researchers of every nationality and age, with a minimum of seven and a maximum of twelve years of experience after their PhD, and a scientific track record that is promising. Tom de Greef and Ilja Voets both work at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS).